My Oregon Neighborhood (9/7/20 update)

Rat Rod Bikes Bicycle Forum

Help Support Rat Rod Bikes Bicycle Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

RustyGold

Epic Level Bike Hoarder! 🏆
Pro Member
Joined
Jul 2, 2015
Messages
5,960
Reaction score
7,666
Location
Mid-Willamette Valley, Oregon
Rating - 100%
22   0   0
I aired out some dirty small town Oregon laundry in the 'Plains of Armageddon' and 'Plains of Armageddon II' threads. Now for some of the more palatable pics of my neighborhood :thumbsup:. No bicycle, just bipedal. Standard disclaimer, pics are from a broke cell camera... poor quality.

Went for a little trip up into the Cascades. Specifically, the Salt Creek Falls area... we've been up here in the winter, and it was beautiful, so we thought we should check it out in the summer as well...
IMG_20200829_120109883_HDR.jpg


Salt Creek Falls...I believe the second tallest in Oregon?
IMG_20200829_120118159.jpg


IMG_20200829_120157641.jpg


IMG_20200829_120300652_HDR.jpg


IMG_20200829_120306372_HDR.jpg


IMG_20200829_121209438_HDR.jpg


Couldn't make it to the bottom as the last hundred yards of trail was destroyed (slid off the cliff), this is as low as we got...
IMG_20200829_121804095_HDR.jpg


IMG_20200829_124214998_HDR.jpg


Then we took the Diamond Creek Falls trail...it was quite the work out...
IMG_20200829_125606348.jpg


First peek of Diamond Creek Falls...
IMG_20200829_132846175_HDR.jpg


IMG_20200829_133704896_HDR.jpg


IMG_20200829_133720709.jpg


Diamond Creek Falls...
IMG_20200829_133925694_HDR.jpg


IMG_20200829_134034273_HDR.jpg


IMG_20200829_134042029_HDR.jpg


IMG_20200829_134115889.jpg


IMG_20200829_134208131_HDR.jpg


IMG_20200829_134214546_HDR.jpg


IMG_20200829_134437004_HDR.jpg


...and the trip back...
IMG_20200829_134625636.jpg


IMG_20200829_134933211.jpg


IMG_20200829_135329060_HDR.jpg


IMG_20200829_135349151_HDR.jpg


IMG_20200829_141123604_HDR.jpg


IMG_20200829_141153980_HDR.jpg


Nothing particularly great about this little lake, except the name...'Too Many Bears Lake' :bigsmile:.
IMG_20200829_143150516.jpg

No bear sign found, however :confused:.
 
Last edited:
My aunt gave me a picture book titled Oregon when I was a child. Thought it was one of the most beautiful places in the world. It sort of reminds me of Maine, another location I'm fond of.
 
Another bipedal trip...this time up to the west side of Mt. Hood to see Ramona Falls. Hot day for being on the mountain, it was over 90°. Big forest fire on the east side of the mountain, but wind was blowing towards it.

I didn't actually get any water in the pic, but this is the Sandy river. There is no bridge here, and in the spring months the crossing can be hazardous...it was low enough that we were able to cross on down tree trunks without getting wet at all :thumbsup:.
IMG_20200906_141208482_HDR.jpg


Mt. Hood
IMG_20200906_141216304_HDR.jpg


IMG_20200906_141735685.jpg


IMG_20200906_143606262_HDR.jpg


So, we planned on doing a big loop, so the first part of the hike would be on The Pacific Coast Trail. This runs along the Sandy river and is exposed to full sun most of the day...combined with the sandy soil (crushed volcanic rocks) and the dry weather we've had the last few weeks, you could almost call this semi-kinda-but not really-arid.
IMG_20200906_152124958.jpg


Ramona Falls. This is another fan-type falls like Diamond Creek Falls last week. A big difference is this is in a bit of a hollow...there is essentially a large natural amphitheater, with the falls being the main stage.
IMG_20200906_153622788.jpg


IMG_20200906_153632048.jpg


IMG_20200906_153901211.jpg


IMG_20200906_154653172.jpg


IMG_20200906_154715459.jpg


IMG_20200906_154738203.jpg


IMG_20200906_154829358.jpg


From here, we start our return trip on the Ramona Falls trail. It follows a draw by a creek bordered by a sheer granite cliff to the right. So, we get to experience a complete different ecosystem on the way back...mossy, green and verdant. This is the typical Cascades temperate rain forest...my fave.
IMG_20200906_155038906.jpg


IMG_20200906_155056748.jpg


IMG_20200906_155249995.jpg


...a peek at the granite cliffs...
IMG_20200906_160559015.jpg


IMG_20200906_160621519.jpg


IMG_20200906_161100762.jpg


Full view of the cliffs...huge rocks are all over this area...some crashing down from cliffs like this...but many remnants of glacial movements and big volcanic booms.
IMG_20200906_161754943.jpg


...mini-waterfall?
IMG_20200906_163024894.jpg


...and back to the start of the loop.
IMG_20200906_170318659.jpg


So...so far we've seen two fan-type waterfalls, and a combo horsetail/plunge (Salt Creek Falls). We've picked out next weeks destination. It will be a plunge fall into a granite bowl.
 
Last edited:
You'll note that the first sign has the Timberline Trail that leads to Timberline Lodge (much bigger hike than I'm capable of!). The claim to fame of Timberline Lodge is that it was used in the exterior shooting of The Overlook Lodge in The Shining movie in the '70s :wondering: :thumbsup:.
 
I can smell the fresh air from those photos. Wanna lay down on that moss and sleep till 2021.


Some RustyGold Wiki;)
 
Another bipedal trip...this time up to the west side of Mt. Hood to see Ramona Falls. Hot day for being on the mountain, it was over 90°. Big forest fire on the east side of the mountain, but wind was blowing towards it.

I didn't actually get any water in the pic, but this is the Sandy river. There is no bridge here, and in the spring months the crossing can be hazardous...it was low enough that we were able to cross on down tree trunks without getting wet at all :thumbsup:.
View attachment 137956

Mt. Hood
View attachment 137957

View attachment 137958

View attachment 137959

So, we planned on doing a big loop, so the first part of the hike would be on The Pacific Coast Trail. This runs along the Sandy river and is exposed to full sun most of the day...combined with the sandy soil (crushed volcanic rocks) and the dry weather we've had the last few weeks, you could almost call this semi-kinda-but not really-arid.
View attachment 137960

Ramona Falls. This is another fan-type falls like Diamond Creek Falls last week. A big difference is this is in a bit of a hollow...there is essentially a large natural amphitheater, with the falls being the main stage.
View attachment 137961

View attachment 137962

View attachment 137963

View attachment 137964

View attachment 137966

View attachment 137968

View attachment 137969

From here, we start our return trip on the Ramona Falls trail. It follows a draw by a creek bordered by a sheer granite cliff to the right. So, we get to experience a complete different ecosystem on the way back...mossy, green and verdant. This is the typical Cascades temperate rain forest...my fave.
View attachment 137970

View attachment 137971

View attachment 137972

...a peek at the granite cliffs...
View attachment 137973

View attachment 137974

View attachment 137975

Full view of the cliffs...huge rocks are all over this area...some crashing down from cliffs like this...but many remnants of glacial movements and big volcanic booms.
View attachment 137976

...mini-waterfall?
View attachment 137977

...and back to the start of the loop.
View attachment 137978

So...so far we've seen two fan-type waterfalls, and a combo horsetail/plunge (Salt Creek Falls). We've picked out next weeks destination. It will be a plunge fall into a granite bowl.

Man I gotta get back out there. I'd like to log some PCT miles
 
Oh... almost forgot the picture that got away. There is a long windy, but paved (heavily potholed and crumbling), forest service road that leads to the trailhead. Along this road are a bunch of primitive camp spots, as well as a couple slightly more developed camp grounds. At one of the few primitive campsites that actually had a place to park a couple rigs, we had noticed a couple pickups with tarped trailers that looked a little odd. Well, on the way back down we found out what was under the tarps. There were 6-8 people lined up as if on a starting line at the edge of the road on minibikes and go carts. The vehicles and people were all done up in Mario Kart costumes...we saw Mario and Luigi and Yoshi, as well as a bearded princess peach among others.

I truly wish I would have gotten a pic but we were past it before I completely registered what I saw, and it's all narrow single lane. Crazy.
 
For me? Sure, I've lived in many states and a few other countries, sequestered by myself out in the woods to metropolitan area of ~30million plus. This is where I have always returned to.

For other people looking to relocate...not really. Oregon suffers from leadership that follows the lead of California... without industry to supply revenue to support it. So, in general terms, this state is hostile to business, high in property and income tax (and the third leg, sales tax, is constantly being pushed at us for decades...and gets closer every attempt), school performance is poor and consistently deteriorating, we are a mecca for the homeless with nothing being done about it, etc etc.

If I didn't have the ties and history, I would probably move to Montana or Alaska.
 
For me? Sure, I've lived in many states and a few other countries, sequestered by myself out in the woods to metropolitan area of ~30million plus. This is where I have always returned to.

For other people looking to relocate...not really. Oregon suffers from leadership that follows the lead of California... without industry to supply revenue to support it. So, in general terms, this state is hostile to business, high in property and income tax (and the third leg, sales tax, is constantly being pushed at us for decades...and gets closer every attempt), school performance is poor and consistently deteriorating, we are a mecca for the homeless with nothing being done about it, etc etc.

If I didn't have the ties and history, I would probably move to Montana or Alaska.
Hmm, that's not an awesome picture.

With all this remote working from covid, we've thought about buying a few acres somewhere like Oregon to live on. If we can get a fast internet connection hooked up it could be anywhere, theoretically.
 
High property values and I only had the option to get off crappy DSL a month ago (3Mbps...when I was lucky). I live within 6 miles of a 17k and a 10k population towns and no cable, fiber, etc possible. I'm currently on a line of sight WiFi setup that was miraculously possible only because I talked my neighbor into getting it so I could bounce the signal off her equipment. Now I'm in the 10-12Mbps zone.
 
Last edited:
We bought our place 20yrs ago for 192k, now worth near 400k...for a 40+ year old house under 2000sqft with eight+ acres. Small crap houses in the small towns next to us are ~200k, my buddy in Salem has a 1350sqft house on a cul-de-sac at the edge of Salem, about same age... probably in the high 300k in value, but he pays more than twice as much as me in property taxes.

To put it in perspective, our first house was in the mid '90s...$33k :grin:. The above mentioned government is making it ultimately harder to build new stuff, which drives property values even higher. In Bend, which has become a mecca for Californians in the Oregon desert, it costs an average of $80k in fees to build before the first shovel is stuck in the ground. The government supposedly believes that the homeless crisis is due to a housing shortage...so they are outlawing building single family dwellings... everything new will need to be duplex, triplex or quadplex depending on your zoning. At the same time as this, landlords are being stripped of the ability to do background or credit checks, can be prosecuted if they don't accept the first applicant, rent controls dictated by government. It's a train wreck of epic proportions...the above is kind of a hodge podge of Oregon and Washington practices, but it doesn't matter who comes up with the dumbest idea, the other state will grab it and run with it.

But...in general...I love my state! :rockout:
 
No scenic pics of some great landscape this week. We are in between some of the fires that you may be seeing on the news.

Screenshot_20200916-230156.png


We are in between the Holiday and Beechie/Lionshead fires. We live just about where the cross is on the map.

Screenshot_20200916-230244.png


At the closest, we were about 20miles from the Beechie/Lionshead fire, and 17miles from the Holiday fire. The fires have been stalled for a few days, the timing was much appreciated as it was on the cusp of entering Springfield, where my wife's neice's family lives. It got within 10miles of there place and was coming straight at them at ~20miles/day. They are the blue dot.

IMG_20200916_231940.jpg


One of my son-in-laws dad was in a level 3 evacuation zone, but refused to leave. The Sheriffs were visiting him often and told him he was 3miles away from the fire...he said he wasn't leaving until he saw flames. Well, he is on a hillside, he wouldn't have seen the flames until the crested, about a mile away or less. Also known as...too late...but, the crazy winds petered out just in time. So, in lieu of pics of my beautiful Oregon Neighborhood... I'll share images from the text thread shared by all the immediate family members in the area.

The next few is everyone sending their first smokey pics. This was the day after the Ramona Falls pics a couple posts up.

Near our house...
IMG_20200916_231446.jpg


A bit later in Springfield...the neice was saying the sun was freaky red...
IMG_20200916_231510.jpg


...I responded back...what sun?...from our house...
IMG_20200916_231524.jpg


That evening pics of ash build up on cars were exchanged...
IMG_20200916_231633.jpg


The next morning...no sun for the next several days (I've only seen the sun once in the last ten days)...

Albany...the furthest family members from the fires, about 20miles west of my place...
IMG_20200916_231713.jpg


Sister-in-law, also in Albany...
IMG_20200916_231700.jpg


...that was pre-dawn, two hours later (~8am), same place...the world turned orange for us...
IMG_20200916_231736.jpg


...more Albany...
IMG_20200916_231729.jpg


My truck in the morning...
IMG_20200916_231725.jpg


This next series of pics were taken by my daughter (professional-ish photographer) on her way to check out the Ranch (where my other son-in-law's dad was staying after it was evac'd). She says no editing, but she knows what all those weird buttons and options are on the camera. So, this isn't what anything actually looked like...but, they are neat pics regardless.

IMG_20200916_231840.jpg


IMG_20200916_231845.jpg


IMG_20200916_231835.jpg


IMG_20200916_231831.jpg


The Ranch...
IMG_20200916_231819.jpg


A day or two later on the other side of Eugene from Springfield...this fire cropped up. Suspected arson at the time...but haven't heard further info. They squashed this one quick, for a change. If it would have gotten out of control...it would have threatened the safe ways out of the Eugene-Springfield area...
IMG_20200916_231900.jpg


Most of what follows this is sharing of evac information, delivering donations to evac centers and fire departments, discussing the latest small fires that were popping up everywhere (which has caused widespread arson paranoia...police say that that hasn't been the case), etc. So, no day by day anymore, settled down to a routine of sorts.

Neice sent this out when it looked like Springfield looked likely to be overwhelmed within the next 24hrs tops...
IMG_20200916_232104.jpg

...then it stalled.

IMG_20200916_232339.jpg


Neice's kids decorated the fence at one of the evac locations...near a fire department.

IMG_20200916_232357.jpg


Sister-in-law headed south to help out a friend's daughter...near Roseburg, 100+ miles south, they have a fire of their own to deal with.

IMG_20200916_232424.jpg


Then a couple days ago, Albany, Salem, and our area had a couple hours of blue sky! I was at work in Corvallis, which didn't clear up, so I haven't seen a blue sky in 10days?
IMG_20200916_232429.jpg
 
The good thing about this year being so bad is that it only seems logical to be optimistic about 2021. It can't be as bad.
IT CAN'T!


Right?
 

Latest posts

Back
Top